by Chris Hendrickson, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA l52l3 Copyright C. Hendrickson 1998
First Edition originally printed by Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-731266-0, 1989 with co-author Tung Au.
Second Edition prepared for world wide web publication in 2000.
Chapters 1 to 3 present an overview of the construction management and design process which should be of interest to anyone engaged in project management for construction. One need not have detailed knowledge about individual tasks or techniques for this part. Individuals can read these chapters and understand the basic philosophy and principles without further elaboration.
Chapters 4 through 14 describe specific functions and techniques useful in the process of project management. This part presents techniques and requirements during project planning, including risk assessment, cost estimation, forecasting and economic evaluation. It is during this planning and design phase in which major cost savings may be obtained during the eventual construction and operation phases. It also addresses programming and financing issues, such as contracting and bidding for services, financing, organizing communication and insuring effective use of information. It further discusses techniques for control of time, cost and quality during the construction phase. Beginning courses in engineering economics (including cash flow analysis and discounting), use of computers, probability and statistics would be useful. Furthermore, access to a personal computer with spreadsheet or equation solving software would be helpful for readers attempting some of the problems in Chapters 4 to 14. Numerous software programs could be used for this purpose, including both spreadsheet and equation solving programs. Problems in some chapters could also be done on any number of existing software packages for information management and project scheduling. However, the use of personal computers in this fashion is not required in following the text material. Each instructor may exercise discretion in omitting some of the material in these chapters if they are redundant with other classes or too advanced for students in his or her own class.
